Strolling Through Fall

{Autumn in Apple Hill}

 {Street Decor}

 {Fall Skies = Beautiful Skies}

 

{Moonlighting}

{Ceramic Holiday Sale}

Revamped!

My room was in much need of a day full of reorganization, which is exactly what I did on Monday. I spent the whole day (noon to 9pm) cleaning out my closet, getting rid of old clothes, putting together new furniture, and getting rid of my broken bed frame and the stuff mindlessly stored under it.

 

Getting rid of clothes is one of the hardest things for me to do. I don't even know how many times my mom has said to me, "You need to get rid of some of your clothes. You have way too many clothes! I bet you still have stuff in there from high school..." I'm 25, by the way, and no, I do not have clothes from high school still residing in my closet. She doesn't even have to be in my apartment to have an oppinion on the amount of clothes I have. I'll be visiting and we'll be in the car on our way to wherever, probably TJ Maxx (I LOVE to frequent the one by my parents, I almost always find something I love and it's so reasonable!), and out of nowhere she will ask, "You don't need clothes. You need to get rid of what you have before you buy more. You have way too many!" Get out of here, mom! I do not, and will get rid of them when I am good and ready!

That ready feeling finally came. I tend to hold on to things thinking one day I'll find use for it, or having more clothes gives me more opportunity to mix and match when, in reality, I really just wear pretty much the same things 90% of the time. Leggings, boots or sneakers, a comfy top, and a scarf. Well, the pages are finally turning and I am starting to feel that less IS actually more (well kinda). It's definitely hard when you live in an apartment with other people and most of what you own or have accumulated over the years is confined to your room.

This is a start to the cut back.

 

 

New items: 3x3 storage unit, and shoe rack.

Weekend In Photographs...

This past weekend I went out to Livermore for the first annual Roanne's Race and to pay a much needed visit to the Hernandezs.

 

{"And don't forget to bring my dog!" Yeah he wishes!}

 

Friday night I headed out to Livermore to stay with the Hernandezs and get a good nights rest for the first annual Roanne's Race I was running the next morning. The night ended fairly early, as I could barely keep my eyes open after having to be up at 3:50am for work (yes, this is my new shift. It isn't so terrible, but it does make me a party pooper by the time 9pm roles around.) Luckily I didn't have to feel too bad, Jeff and Quincy had to be up early the next morning as well.

 

{Scenery from the Roanna's Race trail. I managed to sneak a few pics while holding my pace.}

 

The first ever Roanne's 5k and 10k Race went off without a hitch! The race is in memory of Roanns Cairel, and a proud suponser of colon cancer research, put on by my roommate and 4 of her best friends who grew up and were extremely close to Roanne. I'll go into more detail about the race, Roanne, and my roommate in a later post when I have the photos I took with my DSLR.

 

{Vinyards at sunset through mile four... not much to complain about these running conditions!}

 

I ran the 10k and felt the race was a bit deceiving. The first two miles were so flat, I mean Livermore isn't very unjulated to begin with. I thought the race would go by fairly quickly and may even be a bit boring, for me anyway. I'm a huge fan of courses with hills, creates a bit of a distraction, and, lets face it, it's good for the behind too. However, much to my surprise, I was wrong. After mile two there was a steady incline until mile four. That's two whole miles at incline! Not bad, if I do say so myself. The last two miles were all flat like the beginning. Another happy surprise was my time. I'm not one to really care about time as long as I don't exceed a 10 min/mi pace and am able to run the whole time. I finished the race in 54 mins, that's a 9 min/mi pace. Go me! The surprise kind of inspired me to start paying more attention to my time and maybe even making more effort to improve my speed. It felt good to see I had improved since my last race, Nike Women's Half, this past October.

 

{Yep. This is what I came home to after the race.}

 

{He had a teribble time at the Hernandez's this weekend...}

 

Chili (on the left) was so funny this weekend. He is normally the king of the house, but little Theo came in and quickly became the center of attention (he is still a puppy after all, and we all know puppies are irresistable). After the race I called Brenda to let her know I was on my way back and she was just cracking up! Come to find out this is what she had been looking at. In the middle of her little paint project with a friend who also had a young yellow lab (not pictured) with him, they had a show put on for them by Theo and Annie, the lab. Benonce to me, running in the dirt, jumping in the pond, back to the dirt, digging, and a little bit of puppy love was much of the mayhame going on while I was doing a bit of running of my own. Cleaning this mut was not so much fun, for either of us. Who knew a puppy could get so much dirt caked into his fur... Chili on the other hand (or should I say paw) had but a splash of dirt on his two front paws. He, in the typical Aussie fashion, was the referee trying to herd them out of the pond and the dirt.

 

{The boys are always trying to fit poor Theo in random places and things.}

 

{Chili not wanting me to leave by staging a lockdown on top of all my bags of new yarn in my car.}

 

Meet Chili. He is a lover, and always making it his job to ensure that guests of the Hernandez home are well taken care of. A little cold or lonely at night on their couch? Don't worry, Chili will gladly lay right beside you all night long, in fact, he'd prefer it! This is the typical treatment I would get whenever I have spent the weekend at the Hernandez's in the past. However, this past weekend in particular felt a bit different. He slept with me on the couch every night, but kept his distance from Theo who also slept in the living room. Normally he gives everyone in the house equal amounts of attention, making his rounds if they are scattered throughout the house, as typical Aussie herders do, trying to make sure a member of the pack hasn’t gone missing. This time, during the day, he was staying extra close to me, sitting on me at times with his butt in my face and head resting away from me on the arm of whatever chair or couch I was sitting in. Whenever someone else would attract Theo's attention, Chili would come over all coyly, gently crawl up on my lap and try to lick me, and taking any attention I had, especially when Theo was close, but not engaged with me. Curious about his behavior, Brenda looked online about Aussies behavior towards guest dogs in their home. What she found? Well, not well socialized Aussies can get extremely use to being the single pack leader of the home and become obsessed with gaining that authority when other dogs are brought into the house. Initially, their behavior starts of subtle by trying to attain all of your attention, but they may become aggressive should you allow them to challenge authority and demand leadership. The article describes them as becoming so obsessed, almost like OCD in humans. Weird… Can a dog or other animals really be ODC? I’ve heard of those meticulous birds that, in trying to attract their female mate, clean the ground area of the forest from all the leaves and branches, and then performs a dance. When I think animal OCD, I think of that bird. Anyways, when I said my goodbyes and opened the car door to get in, I barely had a chance to set my bag inside before Chili jumped in and crawled to the back of the seat, sitting on all my bags of new yarn. As you can see with his sad eyes, he was very reluctant to get out. I can only imagine if he could talk he’d be saying something like, “But you can’t leave! That will separate the pack. The pack must not get separated! I can’t be everywhere at once! You’re going to put my OCD into hyper drive and then I’m going to have an anxiety attack!” *pacing the driveway* *chewing nails*

{Pooped!}

 

Theo after the the much needed break from the city.

Running in the mist of things.

As the rainy season approaches I find it's sadly becoming less and less appealing to be outside (I'm a warm/cool weather kinda gal - jeans/leggings, boots, comfy top, and a scarf, (always accessorize with a scarf!)). I don't find the rain to be particularly depressing, but it does hearten the allure of sitting inside with a blanket, a good movie, something tasty, and my knitting in hand. However, like going to the gym, getting out there this time of the year is half the battle. Once a mile or two into my run, the cold weather is actually fairly enjoyable, especially during a long run, and I didn't even mind the mist in my face.

I snapped a few photos along the way. Just couldn't resist, the remnants of Giant pride contrasted well with the street light glow on the wet pavement.

{Along the Embarcadero}